7 November 2002

Sweet gods, isn't this week over yet?

No, it's only Thursday. Worse, sometime today I've got to sit through probably two or three hours of code review. My life is complete.

At least it means tomorrow I'll have something to do. Not much, mind you: A few code optimizations pinpointed by the review, and a writeup of the review's findings.

But at least it'll be a break in the routine of the past three days, all of which have gone something like this:

Come in to work. Write journal entry, alternating with games of FreeCell and Minesweeper. Play some more FreeCell.

Eat breakfast and drink a couple cups of tea.

Open up the bit I plan to work on next in the novel. Get distracted playing FreeCell.

Greet Random when he comes in; talk about how good his coffee smells, but decline a cup. Read a funny article over his shoulder.

Take on some actual work that would normally take about 5 minutes. Stretch it out to 10.

Remember that I forgot to feed the fish, and feed the fish. Watch the fish for a while.

Play some more Minesweeper. Think about doing some work on the novel, then look at the clock and realize it's nearly 11.

Play Minesweeper and FreeCell until 11:30, then log into IRC. Greet everyone online, then chat while playing Minesweeper.

Just for variety, switch to the Palm and play a different solitare game.

Eat lunch. When the reminder pops up, I postpone it for an hour and take my vitamin that I would have forgotten without the reminder. Log out of IRC.

Go back to the novel and read what I've already done. Make revisions. Try to think of an approach for the next bit.

When my reminder pops up again, I dismiss it and go for a walk. (The street my office is on is a circle almost exactly one mile around. I'm short and fat and out of shape, so it takes me about 25 minutes to go around once. I'm slowly building up a collection of music that's got good walking rhythm, though, that should keep me moving a little faster.)

Start writing. Look up an hour later. Go to the vending machine for a bag of chips. Read what I've written while eating the chips, decide it doesn't completely suck.

Play a few games of FreeCell while thinking about the next bit.

Write some more. (Two hours of solid writing each afternoon has netted me between 1000 - 1500 words a day, which isn't a bad return. I do wonder why I can't seem to organize my brain enough to write in the morning, though.)

Feed the fish again, and go home. Finally.

Yeah, I'm much more productive now that they've taken the internet away from me. Oh, sorry, I sprayed a little sarcasm on your shirt, there.

(The crazy thing is that I'd actually be looking forward to today's code review if I didn't think they'd schedule it for the afternoon, which is when I get all my writing done. I'd be much happier if we could do it in the morning, which is 80% Minesweeper and FreeCell.)

The fish, by the way, have been named.

The blue one, who prefers to hang out at the top of the tank and is very tense about everything, is Bert. The one with red fins, who prefers to hang out near the rocks at the bottom of the tank and is usually pretty laid back, is Ernie.

It seemed appropriate.

Okay, I didn't go out to lunch all week for my birthday week, but I am going out to lunch tomorrow. Anyone who wants to join me can e-mail or beep me.

--Liz